Past Tense
by Field
Summary: The adventures of temporal agents C. John Geneija and C. Tanjia 'Mackie' MacKinnley. Pilot: in a routine field mission to correct a minor abnormality, the station stumlbes across a girl immune to the changewaves of time.
1. Chapter 1

I had what I consider to be a brilliant idea for a new Star Trek series. Now, they've gone most everywhere in the galaxy, and even back to their beginnings, but they've not really touched on time travel.

Time travel is a tricky thing, for sure, because of the huge ramifications of changing a time line. Not to mention the whole needing more than infinite energy to break the speed of light to travel back in time (I study a lot of physics!). But in theory, a big enough gravitational field (like a bunch of sun's stacked together), would actually stop or slow time enough that you could travel around it, although I usually use the theory to qualify quantum physics, which should still hold.

So, to get to the point, I want to start a longer series about a space station that orbits around a stack of suns and affects time in roughly the 39th century. I wanted to reference all the different time travel affected events through all the Star Trek series', but I need help since I'm really not very familiar with anything actually prior to Voyager (bush cable is very limited). I'd love it if you posted any story line ideas here, either referencing episodes or something you just think of.

The two main characters thus far are Captains Tanja MacKinlay (Mackie for short) and John Geneija. Mackie is a 39th century native, mostly Vulcan, maybe forty five percent, and a mishmash of everything else in the quadrant. Understanbly, she's fairly stoic, but is comfortable expressing emotions when she wants, or when she explodes. John, on the other hand, was "recovered" from the 20th, pure human from the depths of New Orleans. He's a sweet talker, and gets himself in a fair bit of trouble for it. They're partners, and do a lot of good work, but it's always a bit unorthodox.

Their latest mission, and the first in the series, involves, among other things, a ship that must be destroyed because it does not fit into the timeline, it has shown up without any origins. They're not quite sure where it came from, but it just doesn't fit. Unfortunately, when Mac brings John back to the station, a visitor tags along. Lieutenant Haaka shows up mysteriously on the transport pad, and further medical examination reveals a time chip - a device used to protect temporal agents from the changes they incurr in the time line.

The weird thing is, she doesn't know a thing about it, she grew up on the ship, and knows nothing about time travel. After a fight with the Governor's council, further investigation reveals another set of time travelers in the 29th century. As always, a war breaks out, fought through time, creating a wave of temporal destruction.

Past Tense

Pilot

In the darkened quarters of a Starfleet vessel, a young man woke up next to a young woman. Despite the obvious familiarity between the two, he frowned slightly, perhaps concerned, and pulled the blankets over her bare shoulder as he climbed out of the bed. Clad in skivvies definitely not Starfleet issue, for the red hearts all over the white cotton, he moved to her computer console. Taking a nervous glance over the top of the screen at her still sleeping form, he tapped in a frequency code and waited.

The screen distorted for a moment, and then through the static an image appeared of another young girl.

"Commander." she greeted him with a stoic nod. She was certainly much more prepared for the business meeting than he was. She too was on a ship, much different than the one he was on, and clad in a uniform of white, the remnants of a fight still on her face.

"Shhh..." he held his finger to his lips.

Her face fell ever so slightly. "John, what have you done?"

"Nothin', Mac, just some relations, getting to the inside of this thing." he smiled deviously.

"John, you know the mission protocol." she sighed, rubbing her forehead in weary, "You do this to me every time..."

"What does it matter?"

"What - does - it - matter !" she sputtered, "If you –."

"Shhh..." he implored, "Listen, it's under control. The mission is proceeding as planned."

"John," she tried one last time, "behave."

"I can't be doing wrong if she never exists."

"Commander MacKinlay, status report." the Governor asked, looking up from a stack of reports that was otherwise occupying him. He too was dressed all in white like the girl in front of him, and sat at the head of a white table of six identically dressed admirals in a mysterious room of wrap around computer panelling.

The girl shifted her PADD to the other hand, flexing fingers beneath bandaging, and began to explain the images on the screen behind her. "Commander Geneija is completing the final stage of the mission. We have successfully remedied the original anomaly, in 1985 ..."

Flashback 1985 Beijing

Mac and John pedalled down the busy street. More correctly, she pedalled while he discretely scanned the area with a tricorder.

"Commander, are you any closer to determining our coordinates."

"You know I'm not, Mackie." he laughed a little and looked around, "Too bad I never paid much attention to archaic languages."

"I believe linguistics was a required course for your reintroduction."

"Oh, it was." he laughed, a deep southern laugh.

"Perhaps we should stop and ask directions."

"Why? We can handle this, I'll figure it out."

"We have limited time to find Mr. Tikiomo." a slight scowl passing onto her face.

"Relax, it should be close."

"I find it difficult to relax where temporal anomalies are concerned."

He laughed again, "You know, you've never actually encountered an anomaly before, and we're not about to encounter one today."

She was mildly taken aback, "We have encountered hundreds together."

"No, not really, every temporal anomaly we've encountered, we fixed. So, there really is no anomaly, and you've never experienced one." He was obviously delighted with himself, so much so that he nearly missed their target when his scanner went off. "Whoops, back there, Mac, the old factory."

They turned around quickly, dodging traffic, and pulled up against the rustic brick building.

"We have twelve point three minutes to complete the mission." Mac informed him.

"Best get going then." He grabbed the backpack off the bike and ran to the nearby fire exit stairs.

The two searched frantically through the damp building, both with eyes and tricorders.

"Here." she said suddenly, making a beeline for a nearby door.

In the cramped little room, John laid down the backpack and pulled their instruments from it. "This is the exact location." He pointed to a spot he was examining with the timescanner, about chest height in the middle of the room. Interestingly, his finger passed into it, into an empty void, and passed out the other side.

"Fantastic," she said, taking a dry moment to observe him, "Your knuckle is now in the 22nd century, the rest of you in the 20th. Perhaps, you should quit enlarging the wormhole and help me to close it."

"Yeah, yeah, let's set up." Not even her icy humour dulled his ever-good spirits.

Moments later, the two worked frantically, studying the readouts on multiple computer screens.

"Tell me you've got something!" he called to her.

"I have nothing, to be accurate."

"Perfect, let's stabilize and shut it down." They both smiled, and then he frowned. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" she turned to look at him.

"The corridor." he breathed, "We okay to proceed?"

"We'll have to be. Shut it down!"

The door creaked open, and then swung wide, revealing a short Chinese clerk who bustled into the room. His eyes were focussed on his newspaper, thankfully, so that Mac and John had just enough time to duck into the corner behind a stack of cardboard boxes, instruments in hand.

The man was in the room for a minute before it occurred. Flux readings on the advanced scanner spiked, and the two held their breath. The man, on the other hand, continued to bustle around the room, looking for something in particular.

Mac twisted a dial on the device in her other hand, intense concentration plastered over her face. This was it, the anomaly was coming to life. A quick tap on the scanner, and she moved the dial a little ways back, and then all the way clockwise. She breathed a silent sigh of relief, watching the readings subside.

Quietly, John pulled another small device from the backpack, and strapped it around his arm. He tapped at it's controls as the man walked closer. In a second, he turned invisible, and threw himself over Mac. Just in time, as the clerk began to dig through the boxes immediately beside them.

Attempting to control their breathing, despite the unusual position they found themselves in, they waited for what seemed to be an eternity. It was, in fact, three minutes. They were so close, the field on the armband limited in reach, she was curled on her side and he did his best to sprawl over her. Pressed cheek to cheek, they waited until the clerk left, having found what he was looking for.

With a huge sigh of relief, they stood up and he turned off the cloaking device. "Man," he said, wiping his face, trying to stimulate some colour back into it, trying to lift the mood, "I could sure use a smoke after that."

"Must you embrace all aspects of a timeline." she shook her head, doing her best to look unfazed by the incident.

Present Governor's Briefing Room

"The phaser fire that would have killed that man came from the 22nd century. A micro-wormhole opened up for approximately seven minutes that was roughly one-half-inch in diameter. Mr. Tikiomo would have been found dead with no satisfactory cause of death determined. We discovered that he went on to lead a satisfactory life, unmarried, for the next two years until dying of cardiac arrest." the Commander continued, "It took us several weeks to locate the origins of the shot. A prisoner sentenced to death walked free, and was later caused the destruction of a warp plant, delaying human progress for several hundred years. In the natural timeline, however, the progress in warp theory and space travel is essential to maintain this present."

Flashback 2324 Australian Penal Colony

"Mister William Robert Hammill, you have been charged with the destruction of the starship Viszla, along with her crew and several diplomats that were her passengers." a Judge announced. "As punishment, you will die here today."

The stage was in the centre of a small outdoor court, surrounded by rustic ancient stone walls. A man was tied to the far wall. A group of twenty people or stood watching, most of them sombre, some were perhaps bordering joyous. A priest stepped up to read the man's last rights.

"Mac, we were a little late coming here, don'cha' think?"

"It was the only time the Admirals deemed safe."

"Right." John was a little puzzled, "So, the microwormhole is way over there, and we're way over here, and there's all those people in between. I'm afraid I just don't see how we're supposed to get close enough."

"I was hoping the opportunity would present itself."

"Okay, because that speech the priest is usin', it's right near the end." John fiercely whispered, "You ever think about makin' yer own opportunity, Mackie?"

"Thank you, John, I am well aware of the urgency of the situation. I am currently working on 'making our own opportunity', but somebody keeps talking." she glared.

"We wont get another chance, Mac, maybe I should just cloak and go fix it."

"It's too risky, and there's too much equipment to cover."

The executioner stepped up, a large, burly man, in a leather hood. He pulled out a single handheld phaser and pointed it.

"Mac!" John cried in urgency.

She set her jaw and pushed her way from the back of the crowd, as the Judge called 'fire'. "Wil!" she screamed, her voice cracking with upset.

Suddenly, John saw it, and sprinted forward. He was the only one quick enough to see the phaser she pulled out of her sleeve as she threw herself across the execution stage. Bless her quick mind and trigger finger; just as one pulse of light was sucked into oblivion, her own cut in.

"Nooo..." she sobbed, "Wil..." as the man hung limp where he was tied.

For her cool exterior, Jon had never expected such great acting skills, he nearly laughed and gave them away. At the least, he had to bury his face in her neck to hide his smile.

When the security guards pulled him up, he had managed to school his expression, and he pulled on her shoulders, hugging her tight to him. Roughly, the two of them were pulled out of the secluded courtyard. Mac stumbled, knees 'weak with grief', face wet with tears.

They were led out of the penitentiary, as sobs turned to laughter. "I had no idea!" he blurted out between laughs. Then he looked over, for once she was smiling. "That was good, that was real good." he sombred up a bit, then hugged her tight and kissed her neck.

"Tricky." she corrected, "I'm glad you figured it out." She laughed again, sweet and melodious, letting herself be pulled into him. Then she pulled out a small hand-held device, and pressed the sole button on its face, and they faded away.

Present

She stopped her recount at the barest details.

"What were you thinking?" cried an outraged officer.

"I intended to show grief for the man's death, perhaps act in the place of a family member or intimate friend. Captain Geneija, I believe, acted to comfort me in my duress, and functioned logically to hold me from coming too close and creating an incident that would have been reported."

The nearest Admiral looked at her sternly, "You know," he said after a pause, "you could be decommissioned for that."

Surprise, and perhaps a bit of malcontent, flashed across her face briefly. "I don't see why; we left no permanent trace. The weapon we used was not seen, we gave no sound definition of who we were and used no names, the events were logical and followed closely enough what should have occurred had there been no temporal interference."

"I said 'could have', Captain, your actions were unorthodox, but effective."

"Thank you. Phase three." she turned back to the screen and brought up a schematic of the offending wormhole. "As you can see, the wormhole ended in fluidic space after we closed the first port. We were uncertain of the consequences, and as we researched, we discovered it was a necessary phenomenon that resolved naturally." She shifted on her feet. "We examined the area, but had nothing to report."

"But, Captain, you returned with several broken bones and severe injuries from your exploratory mission." the Governor at the head of the table reminded her.

"I, um –." she would not meet his eyes, she couldn't lie if she did that, "Well, I, um, I tripped, sir."

"You tripped!" he bellowed. A large, older man, he was stout in appearance and temperament, and currently very red in the face.

"Yes, sir."

"And you sustained all these injuries?"

"It was a rather nasty trip." she answered, "and a fair fall too."

"And the final phase?" he relented, leaning back in his chair.

"It's currently underway." she answered, finally looking him in the eye again. "Captain Geneija is awaiting the final go ahead from you, Governor."

"Let's hear it then."

"He is going to destroy a starship."

"What? Why?" surprised choruses came from around the room.

She cleared her throat, the reaction was what she had expected. "The ship itself is an anomaly. It has no origins in the resultant universe, but escaped the temporal wave, we're not sure how.

"We had originally thought it was a time ship, but the Captain has found no evidence to support this. In fact, he's reported it's quite a mundane ship, a deep space exploration vessel, one that prefers to chart asteroids, as it were."

"And how do you plan to avoid the after affects of destroying and entire ship?"

She smiled, "They are about to come across a black hole. We will leave the ship on an intercept course and destroy the ship in its periphery. Starfleet records also indicate that the ship is never heard from, that previous records have been erased, and future communications were not made, so we will not complicate the timeline more."

"How do you expect to retrieve Captain Geneija, Captain MacKinlay?"

"I have been working on modifying the temporal transporters, I believe they will now be sufficient to accelerate him beyond the escape velocity of the black hole."

"And if you are wrong?"

"I wont be."

"Very well." the Governor scratched his nose, letting his fingers linger in thought. "You know, both you and John are very good officers, I would like to lose neither of you. I have a feeling I would lose both of you if you're wrong. However, I do trust your judgement; if you believe you can bring him back and fix this timeline, then I believe it as well."

"Thank you, Governor, Admirals." she nodded politely to them, and left.

Past Tense Starship Discovery

John hoped she would have good news. He'd invested too much time in this mission for her not to. As it was, he'd already begun to tap into the ships systems. It wasn't hard, they had rather simplistic technology at the time. He was in a corridor, he had found it fairly quiet in his three weeks on the ship. Unfortunately, he was officially the chef, and had no business touching any of the controls, but the few people who'd caught him mucking around hadn't minded too much when he was examining the ship's systems.

First, he needed to scramble their sensors, so they wouldn't detect where they were going. Next, he attempted to access audio and video controls. Then he heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

"Well, hey there, Chef." A dapper ensign called out when he rounded the corner.

"Ensign Otomi." greeted John appropriately, "Hard at work, I see." he gestured to the PADD in the officer's hand

"Always." he laughed, coming over to look at the console, "What are you up to?"

"Just checking out some of these systems, still trying to find my way around."

"Oh, hey, whoa, whoa." The ensign began to scowl, poking at the controls, "Chef, I don't know how you accessed these systems, but I can't let you keep going, you know, just in case. Here," he pulled up a new display, "this should satisfy your curiosity, everything you need to know."

"Oh, geez, thanks, ensign." John tried to give him his most convincing apologetic smile, "This'll do real well for me. See you at dinner?"

"You bet."

The ensign walked away, leaving a very frustrated John watching until he passed out of view. When he looked back, a message flashed on the screen: 'Go!'.

So it seemed Mackie had convinced the Admirals and the Governor. He smiled, and set back to work. Since he'd become a temporal agent, and been partnered with Mackie, he'd known her to get away with some pretty crazy things, but he thought this might be more than they could handle. He put the visual sensors at the helm on a loop, and silenced the alarm that would sound when he initiated the self-destruct sequence.

The self-destruct sequence would be a little harder to initiate. It was only the most guarded system on board, even his best techniques couldn't crack it in good time. He pulled the device from his pocket, and pressed it onto the screen.

It was almost finished, when he heard running down the corridor. He turned and looked, it was Lt. Erin Haaka, the pretty young thing whose quarters he'd shared last night.

"There you are, David!"

"Oh, no." He muttered, right before being smothered in a wild hug.

"Come on." she started to pull him away, a devious look in her eyes, "I have to go repair a plasma relay in Jefrey's tube 9-13, I can always claim it took a little longer to fix than expected."

"No." he stopped.

She turned and pouted, "Why not? It won't take long."

Well, he couldn't tell her it was because he was working on blowing up the ship. Being faithfully reminded of something Mackie had once done on a mission, he pulled her close to him, and kissed the sanity out of her. Then he flipped her around, so her back was to the panel. To her it was divine, to him, it was the only way to continue accessing the controls. Twenty minutes, that should be enough time at maximum warp. He hit the final control and pulled his device back into his pocket.

He let it go a little longer, then stopped her. "Erin, not right now, sweetheart."

"Oh, Dave." she tried.

"Sorry," he smiled, resting his head on hers, "I have a souffle in the oven that I have to check. I'll see you at dinner."

"Okay." she whined sweetly.

"Go fix your relay." he smiled, letting her go and watching as she bounced around the corner.

Now, the very last phase: he needed to pilot the ship right to the event horizon. Junction 7-B didn't lead anywhere, it was where he worked from. Curling up, he watched the small screen with the only accurate output from the visual sensors. Then, there it was, it was magnificent and he doubted he'd ever have another chance to see one, let alone from the inside.

Finally, the ship was drifting casually over the event horizon, and silent timer ticked down towards zero.

"John?" came a puzzled voice from above.

"Lt. Haaka." He tried to smile, but it was beyond hope.

"What are you doing here?" she climbed down to his platform.

"Nothing, you should get outta here."

"What's going on?" she reached out to touch him.

He turned his head, and saw the timer hit 0:00, and then the familiar tingling of the temporal transporter.

Mac smiled just a little as John rematerialized on the platform, and then that smile turned to panic. "Oh, shit, John." she said quietly.

"What?" he asked, turning to look where she was looking, just over his shoulder, and then he paled.

The pretty young girl screamed.

Mackie hit her comm badge, almost absent-mindedly. "Governor, we have a situation."


	2. Chapter 2

The Governor looked from her to the girl, and back to her again. "Mackie, what the hell is this?"

"Sir," Mac tried to maintain some form of professional decorum. The were four of them gathered in the Governor's quarters, he had just woken up and was still dressed as such.

"No." he shouted, "This is too much. This should not have happened." the man, looking as though he was having difficulty keeping his blood pressure down, turned towards John. "Captain, you're likely to be court marshalled for this, and you too, Mackie. I have no choice but to bring this to the council. You know how much trouble it is to get a recovery license, now think about how much trouble this will cause. The three of you will be deleted from the timeline, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Governor," Mac pleaded.

"Hey, now." the girl interrupted, "Someone has to tell me what the hell is going on. One thing I know, I'm fixing a conduit in Jefreys tube 9-13, and the next, David's acting all cryptic and there's a silent counter that hits zero and the ship starts to rattle, and I end up on a transporter pad. I have a right to an explanation before I'm 'deleted'." she screamed at the governor.

"Right then." John said.

"It's John, not David." Mac muttered.

"Welcome to the Twilight Zone." John muttered and turned to the door.

"Find out where she came from." the Governor yelled.

"_Captain_ John Geneija." Mac said, turning the highly miffed girl out the door.

"Lieutenant Erin Haaka, are you a temporal agent? Or, have you at any point encountered a temporal agent?" Mac went through her list of questions calmly. The white walls of the interrogation room, and her calm demeanor contrasted starkly with the wide-eyed, very frightened young woman across from her.

"No." she clipped, "Now, who are you? And who's he? And where am I?"

"I am Captain Tanja MacKinnley. Captain John Geneija is my partner. We are temporal agents. This is the 39th century. You are aboard a temporal station located deep within the beta quadrant. We orbit a natural gravitation phenomenon that allows us to accelerate signals beyond the natural speed of light."

"So why am I here?"

"We were attempting to remedy a temporal anomaly. The details are complex, but it was necessary to destroy the starship you were serving on for temporal continuity."

"So you killed all my friends, and the Captain?" she shouted, turning to look at John who stood in the corner.

"It was necessary." he mumbled.

"In fairness, your ship, and many of your crewmates should never have come to exist. Your ship was an anomaly, and it is our duty to restore the full natural timeline. Now, have you ever heard mention of temporal agents on board your former ship?"

"Obviously not, if it never existed!" she screamed.

"Please," Mac said calmly, "This is important."

"Mac, maybe we should give her some time." John suggested, "She's got no idea of what's going on right now, let alone how she got here."

"You." Erin stood and turned an accusing stare in his direction. "Dave – John – whatever your name is, what kind of person can do that? I mean, you were on our ship for three weeks. Everyone liked you, I liked you. You just lied and pretended you wanted to be our friend, and then you blew us all up."

"Look, I don't like doing it." he offered in defence, holding his hands up as she marched toward him. "And I'm sorry, for what it's worth, I know what you're going through."

"John, I told you your indiscretions would come back to you, and now there is clearly a very troublesome situation." Mac chided.

"Mac, I didn't mean for –."

"How can you possibly know what I'm going through?" Erin yelled at him.

"Because," he stated more forcefully, "I was pulled through too. I'm from the 20th century, and they brought me here to work with 'em. It's confusing, it's frustrating, we're tellin' you everyone you ever knew is long dead or never existed. You wanna scream, you wanna wake up, but we just keep feedin' ya the same crazy story, and you might just start ta believe it. Now, sit down!"

She plopped down her chair once more, staring up at him in fear.

"John." Mac soothed.

"Sorry."

"So, if he just showed up here like me, I don't see what the problem is." Erin reasoned.

"Captain Geneija was retrieved. There was a lengthy investigation and many discussions on the benefits of it, and we were granted a permit after a year long application process. In the natural timeline, he was lost and no body was ever found. It was a unique opportunity in that we were able to take him without harm to the timeline. It is different from this situation because I was authorized to bring him back."

"And so, what about you?"

"Me?" Mac was confused.

"How did you get here."

"Mac's a 39th century native, born and raised in San Diego." John offered.

Erin was astonished, "On Earth? But, you're Vulcan."

Mac smiled a little, which only shocked Erin more. "I am only partly Vulcan. At this time in the universe, boundaries between species mean very little, and there are very few people left who have a complete claim to their ancestry. I am mostly Vulcan, somewhat less than half, with a large portion of human, as well as Betazoid, Klingon, Rigellian, even some Romulan. The universe has become quite unified since your time. Furthermore, the Earth was destroyed several thousand years ago, San Diego is a district on Mars Colony. Now, for the last time, are you certain you have no connections to any temporal agents."

Erin gaped up at the two of them.

After a tense pause, Mac sighed heavily and turned away. "Take her to the Doctor, see if he can find anything."

The door opened and two gruff Lieutenants walked into the room, taking the girl by surprise. They quickly knocked her out with a hypospray and carried her away.

"That was a little much, don'cha think?" John asked, taken aback by what he'd just seen.

"It's Protocol." Mac replied. "You wouldn't remember it from when we retrieved you."

"I don't remember much from that time." John confessed.

"We kept you sedate through our preliminary investigations." Mac said, "Besides, we were pretty sure you weren't an agent, our security protocols were lax."

"I still don' see why this is so different."

"There is only one way she could have come through that without a great deal of effort on your part: she would need the temporal enzyme."

"Do you really resent being 'pulled through'?" Mackie asked quietly. She and John were waiting patiently in Sick Bay for the Doctor's report.

He turned and smiled at her. "Not at all, I wouldn't have met you otherwise." He laughed and gave her a little squeeze.

The Doctor pulled back the curtains around his sedate patient. He was a medical hologram, a gleaming bald patch in the image of Dr. Zimmerman, and a sarcastic bed side manner to match. "Well, I have your answer." he beamed proudly at them, withholding a PADD and bouncing on his heels.

"Well?" John prompted.

The Doctor sighed and gave over the PADD for Mac's scrutiny. "It's as you expected. She's a temporal agent, but not one of ours. I found a temporal stability nanobot in her blood stream."

"A machine?" John asked in surprise.

"Yes." The Doctor brought up a microscopic image on a nearby console. "Very advanced. A modification of Borg technology, I'd say."

"So, we're looking circa 24th century." John surmised.

"It would seem so." the Doctor nodded.

"Not necessarily," Mac added, "In another timeline, the Voyager heroics may not have destroyed the Borg. Remember the Voyager crew had a little temporal help in more than a few instances. The timeship could be from any subsequent century."

John nodded, wrapping his head around the logic. "True, but we should begin there, we know that's when the Borg began developing their temporal technology."

"Anything else you can tell us, Doctor?"

"Not much. Twenty-nine years of age, human, a broken femur in her early youth that's healed up nicely, recent copulation." the hologram raised his eyebrow suggestively, "I've asked the Governor to retrieve her medical file, I believe Jakubs is on it."

"I thought I saw him there." John shook his head and laughed. "Thanks, Doc."

"Of course." he nodded, and returned to his patient.

"So what do we know?" John asked. He and Mackie were sitting in a quiet Mess Hall reclining on one of the many massive white couches, a large laptop-like PADD open on her folded thighs.

"Well," Mac scratched her head, "we know how she got here. We don't know how she got there."

"Okay." John nodded, "Do we have her service record?"

"Not yet, Jakubs is still recovering the ship's database."

The chef brought them both a steaming mug of tea. "It's a late night for you kids." he said.

"Thanks, Regan." Mac smiled. She was tired, but John showed it more. "I expect we'll have a few late nights."

"Can I get you anything else before I turn in?" he asked.

"No, thanks, Reg." John pulled up a quick smile. "Don't worry, we'll lock up when we're done."

"You've certainly done enough late nights that I wouldn't worry about my kitchens, it's you two." The chef eyed them, "You should really take some personal time, even temporal superheroes need to take a few minutes to relax."

"Thanks, Chef." Mac nodded and waved him off.

Mackie took a moments pause to savour the first hot sip of tea. "Did you notice anything while you were with her?"

John sighed, "No, not at all. She was completely average, she didn't have enough time in her day to do any meddling. Sure, her job took her in with the engines and to the ship's vital systems, but she was just an ensign. If she got to any sensitive machinery, there was always someone with her. She spent most of her off-duty time in the mess, or with me. She wasn't sneaking around – trust me, I would have noticed. I swept the ship's logs, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary: a few temporal readings I figured were from me, and from her as I well I suppose, but nothing suggestive of any major tempering or equipment, there was absolutely no evidence of temporal communication, no temporal technologies suitable for camouflage or communication. It was a completely boring ship. Maybe she really doesn't know anything about time."

"It just doesn't make sense. What purpose could it possibly serve to put a silent agent on a research vessel in an unoccupied region of space."

John lifted his tired eyebrows. "It did save the ship from the temporal wave we sent out."

"Oh." Mac sat up a little straighter in this new light. "Of course it did. What could the Others have been trying to set off?"

"I don't know. When we researched the first time, there was no evidence of causation, no significant effect the ship exerted on its surroundings. But maybe we missed something."

"I will probe her tomorrow." Mac decided. "For now, I'll go through these records again."

John looked at her with a sad smile and took the laptop out of her hands. "Chef's right, take a little personal time. Sleep at least."

"I'm perfectly fine to work through the night." she announced.

"Yes, but you've been up through the last couple of nights, and that's not fine. Meditate at least, for me." he smiled.

She gave a resigned nod and let him pull her up off the couch.

"Big day tomorrow," he said, "can't have you falling asleep in the middle of a meld."

"Captain MacKinnley," the Governor called after her, bustling up to her in the hall, "I just wanted to inform you that I've had to contact the Governor's circle, I expect you'll have about a day or two before you are summoned to appear with some answers about our new arrival."

She cringed internally, "Understood."

"Do you know anything yet?"

"The Doctor discovered temporal nanobots in her system, other than that, we have nothing. Just that I don't believe the girl knew she was a temporal agent."

"Hmpf." the Governor grunted. "Keep working on it."

"Yes, sir." Mac watched the man wobble away, and tried to shake the impending sense of doom out of her head.

"Jakubs returned last night." John announced when she breached the doors of Sick Bay.

"And?"

"Her personnel file goes back to her childhood. They found her as an infant in an escape pod. With no reference data to send the pod home, she grew up on board."

"You are joking." Mackie was not impressed. "Was there any evidence of tampering?"

"Absolutely not." John half-smiled in frustration.

"You're suggesting she really doesn't know."

"Only one way to find out." John nodded towards the bed and patient, set up just how she liked it for these special inside missions.

She shrugged like an athlete getting ready for a sprint. "One way." she agreed, and proceeded to the bedside.

After the traditional 'my mind to your mind' business, the meld Mackie was in was entirely uneventful. In fact, the simplicity of the girl's mind astonished her to the point of migraine. Deliriously happy memories, drunken nights at parties, drunken men, music, giggling girls. It made her stomach turn. She cycled through the open life events, the recently recalled memories.

She let the images slow as she approached the present. John had done well posing as a solo explorer turned chef, there was no doubt. He won the hearts of the crew quickly, always the first step of an extended mission. She was actually proud as she watched him, she had trained him herself, and now she was seeing the results of that first hand, when she wasn't there to guide him. When she thought about it, they had been partners for a long time now, not master and protege like they'd started as. She'd have to remember that when she got out of this ridiculous mind, maybe let him feel a little of the responsibility, take a little heat. She smiled almost perversely.

The memories Erin had of John were a little more rivetting: a friendly smile, a special dessert for a birthday, and a casual kiss. At the least, Mac noticed, Erin had been the one to go after him, in the onset. He had organized the follow-up visits. Mac found herself holding her breath as things turned a little heated in her quarters after a private dinner. Her heart was racing as the evening proceeded and she saw John's intimacies through the woman's eyes.

She shook herself, she didn't need to see any more. She started working back now, through the less recent memories, back to her childhood. If the girl had known she were a temporal spy, she never acted on it, or acknowledged it. As promised, Erin had arrived on the starship as a baby, brief flickers of age suppressed memory told Mackie. Before that, things were too hazy.

Memories could be forced out, Mac was certain. A vision of a safety pod, before that the safety pod being sealed, a man above. He was handsome, but cold, a slightly noticeable metal protrusion came from behind his eyelid. The room was unmarked, white walls and fluorescent lighting burned at young retinas. In reverse time, he held the infant and brought her to a bio-carriage. Mac sensed from him a brilliant, calculating mind and a desolate compassion; his creation destined for a powerful mission.

Mackie snapped awake. Creation. That was it, the girl had no racial memory, no parental images. She had been shocked to life through some bio-medical wizardry and sent to the doomed USS Discovery.

John cleared his throat. "Well?"

"It's just as it appears to be. There's no memory of any extraneous missions to her StarFleet career, the lifepod is there. There was a face of a man, but other than that the memories are too blocked, or non-existant. I believe she was created with this purpose."

"Created? So, what are we going to do with her? What are you going to tell the board of Governors?"

"I am uncertain."

Mackie took a deep cleansing breath and tried to focus her energies inward. It had been a long time since she'd tried to meditate. She usually had her emotions under solid control, and being not entirely Vulcan, she didn't adhere strictly to their ancient practices. But Surak was wise, and after the stress she'd been thrown into in the last 48 hours, she could certainly use some help before the board meeting at 0800.

She tried to let herself drift into the white space of calm but found it marred. Recent interactions with one Erin Haaka cycled through her mind at light speeds, and images of John and the Governor's cherry-red face. The Doctor's disturbing news came to the forefront once, and was settled as a point of medical certainty.

Her mind drifted to a place with evergreens and a crystal clear stream on a bed of smoothly-eroded stones. The sky overhead was a brilliant blue, with a single strip of cirrius cloud breaking the azure. She knew this place, but certainly none like it existed anymore.

She turned to her right, the stream still on her left. A bush rustled, and there he was: John. But he was different in this memory, maybe it wasn't a memory, he had before looked on her with fear and distrust and promptly run in the opposite direction, where now he smiled and came to her.

"Ya look worried, Mackie." he reached out to touch her, but she resisted. "I'm sorry about all this." he continued, "I didn't ever plan on it – really, what are the odds?" He laughed a little bit in between, even though she did her best to ignore his presence as she watched him skip rocks. "You know, this is where you first found me. Ya really put me through hell, but I guess ya saved my life, so it's okay. Maybe we did the same for Erin. This could be a good thing, we're learning about a whole new culture that we didn't know existed – maybe she was planted there for us to find. Kind of like a 'welcome to the temporal world' kind of practical joke."

He came up to her now, sidling in front of her, and pecked her cheek. "Ya know, when I first saw you, I thought you were an angel, or the devil. You were so beautiful, I knew you then, knew you held my future. So, I ran, do you remember that? Yeah. It doesn't make a lot of sense, it makes more sense now that I know what ya had in for me." he laughed, "I guess, my point is don't be afraid of these unpredictable events, not when you've got someone like me watchin' out for ya."

Mac woke on the floor of her quarters, drenched in her own sweat, the meditation candle long burnt down. She looked at the chronometer, 0715. At the least, rushing to the meeting, she felt calm and composed so her peculiar meditation had done the trick, or so it seemed.

There is also a forum for this fiction, Idea Central under Past Tense, if you want to discuss any thoughts you're having. And, as always, reviews are super cool. Thanks.


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